New documentary tells story of spring Chinook salmon – The Cordova Times

A new documentary about the disappearance of spring Pacific Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest suggests that if management policies catch up with the science before it’s too late, humans can help save the iconic species, which are critical to the southern resident orcas and humans alike. .

“Will politics catch up with science before it’s too late?” asks Shane Anderson, a director, producer, editor and camera operator at Swiftwater Films in Olympia, Wash., who produced “The Lost Salmon.”

The film, broadcast on Public Broadcasting television stations in November, tells the story of how Spring Chinooks met their demise. The film details the damage from dams, human greed and pollution that has led to the current precarious state of these salmon. from the Columbia River Basin to Idaho’s Snake River and Washington’s San Juan Islands.

For centuries, these species have been critical to the nutrition of southern resident killer whales in the Seattle area and to Native American tribes on the West Coast for nutrition and culture.

“I am hopeful that the data we have generated and the new understanding will present its extinction,” said Mike Miller, a professor of genetics at the University of California-Davis. It was extensive research conducted in Miller’s lab that identified a gene in…